Automated Transformation of Legacy Systems

The transformation of system applications code and database at automation levels exceeding 99 percent is now a viable approach to legacy information system modernization. The benefit of the approach is migrating the legacy system to a modern computing environment while preserving the repository of business knowledge and processes imbedded in the legacy system. D uring the last 50 years, information processing systems have become the intellectual repositories for most business and government organizations. Today these organizations face the complex and costly problem of how best to restructure the installed base of outdated information processing resources while maintaining their legacy intellectual property. This legacy intellectual property continues to provide value as organizations are forced to innovate to survive in the fast-paced age of e-business , e-communication, e-organizations, and in the case of the military, e-warfare. The need to modernize legacy systems is primarily driven by three factors: expansion of the system's functionality; improved maintainability of the system using modern tools and techniques; and reduction of operational costs and improved reliability by replacing obsolete hardware suites with high-speed, open-architecture systems. Alternative solutions for modernization of the system include developing a new system, system replacement with a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution, or manual rewriting of the legacy applications software and databases to operate within a modern computing environment. Developing a totally new system or replacing legacy systems by manually rewriting the system's software with the support of semi-automated tools is extremely costly and time consuming. Replacing the system using COTS technologies , while less costly and timelier, usually requires extensive and expensive customization to provide functionality not provided by the COTS product. In addition , the Gartner Group has shown that the success rate for information system modernization projects using these traditional solutions has thus far been approximately 7 percent; it is a success rate that has not bred confidence within the information technology (IT) community. Manual approaches have been prone to failure due to inconsistency, cost overruns, and schedule delays. COTS solutions have fallen short of expectations because of their inability to provide the customer with the functionality needed to meet its specific organizational goals. And semi-automated tool-based solutions, while relatively promising, have not provided a sufficient level of automation to overcome the drawbacks associated with manual intervention required to address untrans-formed code. Looking more closely at the automated transformation approach, it becomes evident that using available tools capable of transforming 60 …